


War Games

by Figgyfan14



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Almost-genderbent-Harry, And takes over the world, Crossdressing Harry, Dark Harry, Harry has a Harem of men and a few women as well, Magical Dudley Dursley, Multi, Slytherin Harry, harem!fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-05-15 16:17:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5792299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Figgyfan14/pseuds/Figgyfan14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry, raised Harriet, is more magically powerful than anyone was aware, and also may be a tad bit darker than previously thought.<br/>Dudley, raised to protect his small defenseless cousin, will be a bit better equipped to do so as he goes to Hogwarts to learn to control the magic he was unaware he had.<br/>Fred and George Weasley may have just found a leader they can actually get behind.<br/>And Severus Snape has no idea what he is getting himself into now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is basically my mind doing what it wants to do. I've got no clue what is actually happening here.

Petunia felt a spike of fear go through her as she saw the baby on her doorstep when she was meant to pick up the milk from their porch. Her hands shook as she picked up the note that was laying on him, reading it quickly before shoving it into the pocket of her robe and swearing under her breath. She sighed as she looked down at the beautiful child that was now all she left of her former family.

Petunia had been feeling so remorseful of the last fight they'd gotten into, and had taken to looking at the pictures of her and Lily more often than she had in years. And now she had lost her chance to make it up to her sister. The woman made up her mind right then, picking up the child and cuddling him to her chest. The fact that it was a boy would make things more difficult with Dudley, who was now two, and Vernon, who was a proud father of what he insisted was the best boy there could ever be…

So she made another decision.

~*~

Harry Potter was cooking breakfast for Dudley's birthday that morning, humming happily along to Bohemian Rhapsody as it played from the cassette player in her pocket. Her headphones were half the size of her head, and her unruly hair was pulled back into a ponytail she had managed at 5am when getting up to start on that day’s preparations. It wasn't every day your cousin turned brother had an 11th birthday.

Harry had slipped into her favorite sundress, pulled her hair back, and met up downstairs with Petunia to start the process of getting ready for the day. That was when they found the letter. Dudley and Vernon were still asleep, and Harry was very happy for that when Petunia sat heavily down and started to cry. This made no sense to Harry, who didn't know why a letter would be anything to cry about, but her aunt was sometimes strange like that.

“Pet? Auntie, what's wrong? What happened?” She whispered, hugging her from the side and rocking her gently. Petunia let out one more whimper before wiping her tears away with a handkerchief and sniffling softly.

“Oh, Harry. It's nothing you have to worry about right now. Can you start on the breakfast for me, dear? I have everything set out for it. You know the plan, right? Blueberry pancakes, chocolate chip muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon-” Harry cut her off there, smiling and nodding.

“Of course I know, Pet. Just let me handle it.” She assured quickly, unsure of why it was such an important letter, but not wanting to know either. It was probably from Smeltings or some such important school that Dudley hadn't gotten into. They had worked hard to get him ready for the entrance exams for the tougher ones, but anything could have kept him from it. Harry just gave her aunt one more hug and slipped away into the kitchen, though not before grabbing her Walkman.

The song changed, and We Are The Champions started to blare and bring Harry out of her head, keeping her from wondering again about the letter. It had been thick parchment, slightly yellowed with a red wax seal on the back and Dudley's name and address in green ink on the front. She hadn't seen a return address. Strange, but her mind had more pressing matters to attend to, like the timer on the muffins going off. Muffins, check. Pancakes, check. Bacon and eggs left to go, and then warming up the syrup and setting it all out. A glance at the clock had her relaxing, since there was plenty of time, and a glance into the sitting room showed her aunt arranging the gifts they'd gotten Dudley. It wasn't until 20 minutes later, as Harry set the table, that Vernon came downstairs, followed shortly by Dudley.

Uncle Vernon was the only person in the house that Harry didn't have wrapped around her finger, and she knew it was because he hadn't wanted a second child. Petunia had presented Harry to Vernon with as much excitement as she could manage, crooning over the baby “girl” and saying how much she had always wanted a boy and a girl. Vernon hadn't been the most pleased, but after Dudley had decided he liked having a baby sister approximately two minutes after meeting her, well… Vernon was outnumbered and slowly came to appreciate having her around. He would never love her like he loved Dudley, but he was the type to spoil his children and did the same with her. It helped that she did so many things around the house, like cooking and tending the garden and cleaning when it was asked of her.

It also probably helped that Harry had first used her accidental magic in a way that saved Dudley and a very expensive vase from quite a fall down the stairs when they were three. After that, he couldn't even hold magic against her.

“Diddikins, happy birthday!” Petunia called from the sitting room and Harry giggled softly at the nickname that Dudley had never gotten rid of. Dudley rolled his eyes at her and grabbed a muffin off the table as he followed his mum’s voice into the next room.

Thirty seven gifts awaited him, perfectly wrapped by Harry and Petunia while Dudley was off with Vernon the day before, two of them from Harry herself. The favorite gift would of course be a toss-up between the new computer and the motorbike, but Harry had gotten him a super-soft soccer sweater and a skateboard, and both were rather likely to be towards the top of the list.

“Mum, the bacon will get cold if we do presents first!” Dudley reminded as he ate his muffin, a foodie at heart. He had even begged his parents into getting a proper grill in the back yard for barbecues. Harry knew this approach wouldn't work, though. Petunia and Vernon always had them open their presents first, and the protest wasn't truly believable anyway when Dudley started opening gifts as soon as his muffin was gone.

~*~

Harry would have sworn the snake spoke to her… not around her parents, of course, though. It wasn't the first time that had happened, but it had been chalked up to dangerous levels of imagination when she was a kid, and so she hadn't spoken about such things since then. Dudley had never had such things happen to him, though, so it was probably a magic thing.

It wasn't until a week later, when Harry picked up the mail after breakfast and received a letter that looked exactly like the one for Dudley that made Petunia cry on his birthday, that she found out Dudley was also magical. The letter was an acceptance to the School his aunt said Lily went to. Hogwarts.

“Aunt Tunia… I got a letter from… from Hogwarts.” Harry mumbled the last bit as she stepped into the kitchen with that day's mail, her letter open in her hands and her face a puzzled mask of emotions. “They want me to… to go learn magic.” She had know this day would probably come, but she hadn't been prepared for the overwhelming rush of excitement and also nervousness that she was experiencing. She looked up in surprise when her uncle huffed and frowned. 

“So you're going to that magic school after all. I had hoped we could keep them from getting their hands on you.” Vernon huffed gruffly, frowning and shaking his head as he went back to his paper. A rather tame reaction compared to how he likely would have had it been anyone but his own little girl. Dudley didn't react so calmly.

“But… but you were supposed to go to school here. Now you'll be gone, and you're so tiny! How can you protect yourself? You can't just go off by yourself, you'll-”

“Dudley, hush! There's nothing we can do about it!” Vernon interrupted, snapping his paper in annoyance and ignoring the distressed noise Dudley made.

That was when Petunia stepped in, though. “Dudley. Vernon. Harry won't be going alone.” She stepped up to the table and pulled another envelope out of her purse. “I was waiting to see if… if you would want to go, Duddy, but… you got a letter too.” Petunia always said that a respectable person needed to not stutter, but sometimes it was unavoidable, and thinking of sending both her precious children off to a boarding school to learn magic like she herself had so wanted to was intimidating enough to warrant breaking her own rule.

“Are you saying I'm-” Dudley started, interrupted by Harry.

“Dudley's magical?” She blurted loudly, wide eyed as she looked up from her letter for the first time since getting it. Dudley would be going to Hogwarts with her? That was the best news she could have ever hoped for. She didn't know how she would have been able to handle being away from everything she'd ever known, but if Dudley went too?

“What did you say?” Vernon’s voice was soft and his face was actually pale, not anywhere near the reddish pink his face usually was.

“Vernon, you-”

“Dad-”

“Dudley is. Magical.” Vernon looked like he might faint as he said this, interrupting both Dudley and Petunia and then standing quickly and violently, jerking on his coat and walking out the door. He had been working on anger management. It seemed to be working.

“Mum, am I really going to magic school?” Dudley blurted as soon as the door was shut behind his father.

Harry still couldn't wrap her head around the thought that they would both be going, and looked back down at the note, addressed to Harriet Potter of Number 4 Privet Drive. It was no mistake. Though she did wonder why it didn't out her “proper” gender. She still thought of herself as a girl, even as she became aware that she was at least half as much a boy as Dudley was, though he was a lot more feminine.

“Yes, Duddy, you're both going to Hogwarts… both of you…” she murmured, hugging her son to her gently and resolutely not thinking about how grateful she was to be sending them both, that Dudley would never know the feelings she'd had. She has seen small signs that she thought could be accidental magic, but she hadn't wanted to get anyone's hopes up and had said nothing.

“When do get to get our supplies? Where do we go for that? Can we do it today?” Harry piped up quickly, more excited about this than she was for her own birthday at the end of the month. What was that place Petunia had mentioned visiting? Dragonlily? Diagonally?

“We'll have to go to Diagon Alley to get the supplies… and I don't suppose it would hurt to do so today. Both of you need to go get dressed properly first,” she told the pair of pajama-wearing children, who were more than happy to race up the stairs and into their rooms for clothes. This left Petunia to straighten the kitchen a little as she got a handle on her emotions.

It seemed she would be going back to their world after even, despite the promise she'd made herself all those years ago. And Petunia Dursley thought it would be worth it, if Dudley could have what she never did.

~*~

Diagon Alley had gone over better than any of them could have hoped. They came out with all their supplies and had picked up a beautiful black great-horned owl Dudley named Titan and a large grey cat Harry called Kole. The cat wasn't actually just a cat, but something called a kneazle, with a tuft on the end of its tail and just a tad bit too much intelligence in its eyes. Harry loved it. Dudley feared it. And Petunia thought it was a fitting companion.

Vernon had picked them up outside the Leaky Cauldron in the car, though all he saw were the two buildings next to it. He had been rather more grumpy than usual, but seemed to have calmed down significantly. Seeing the large cat Harry was carrying and the owl cage Dudley had was enough to make him turn a slightly darker red, but he held himself in check. He even continued to do so as the time progressed, not saying a word when they sent out replies if confirmation with Titan or when Kole sometimes slept on the sofa rather than in his bed. (This did cause Petunia to sometimes huff about the fur, but it was nothing Harry couldn't fix with a vacuum.) By and all, things went well in the final months preceding their trip to Hogwarts, and the time was gone too quickly for Harry’s liking.

“Now, we won't be going through the wall with you, but I expect you both to be on your best behavior.” Petunia reminded them quickly as they got out of the car. She wasn't expecting the quick but fierce hug Harry gave her as soon as the girl stepped out of the car, but she took it happily before hugging Dudley as well and watching Vernon pull their trunks out of the boot of the car. They had sent Titan flying to Hogwarts so he wouldn't have to ride the train, but Kole was wrapped around Harry’s neck like a scarf, flicking his tail against her ear, and Petunia had to make one last check that they had everything they would need before sending them off. “You know you can write and we'll send you anything you forgot you needed, okay? Be safe, or you'll be hearing from me about it this summer.” 

“We don't want either of you getting into any funny business. I expect top marks and good prospects from you.” Vernon added, puffing up his chest a bit before looking at his watch and deflating some. “It's fifteen till, so get to that platform.” He hesitated for a moment before pulling Dudley and then Harry into hugs, patting them both on the head afterward and sending them off. Hugs were for very special occasions with Vernon, and both children sniffles a bit as they mumbled their love and goodbyes before taking off together.

Dudley had insisted on taking both of their trunks, even though they had gotten top of the line models with near bottomless compartments and featherweight charms on them, but Harry didn't care, strolling along beside him in an emerald sundress with Kole now taking up both her arms as he stretched in them and purred. “Dudley, do you think I'll be in Gryffindor like my parents? Or some other house? I am rather ambitious, and so are you…. Do you think we'll be in Slytherin?” She contemplated the other two houses before ruling them out entirely. Neither of them for her or her cousin well enough.

Dudley shrugged. Harry had read the portion of “Hogwarts: a History” aloud the night before when neither of them could sleep, and he didn't know if he would want to be in a house that sounded as righteous as Gryffindor, but he also didn't know if he could get into Slytherin with his blood status. “I hope we're in the same house, is all.” Dudley decided and smiled at Harry, getting an answering smile in return.

“Then we will be.” Harry decided, unsure if she could make it happen but willing to try.

They had arrived at the correct wall, and Harry took a moment to steel herself before stepping through like it was nothing, followed shortly by her cousin, who looked rather shaken up by the process. She wondered if there were many walls in the wizarding world like that, then was caught off-guard by the sheer amount of people and noise on the platform, all of them wearing robes and telling someone goodbye. Kole rumbled in distaste for the noise, and Harry pulled him closer as she kept moving, watching Dudley bring himself up to his full height and puff up his chest to make moving through the crowds easier.

“Oi, Harry, you go up the train that way and I'll go up this way and send Kole to find me if you find an empty compartment.” Dudley suggested, getting a nod from Harry and a grumble from Kole. They took off in opposite directions, and before long Harry came across a compartment with two boys in it, red-haired twins that stood when the door opened and seemed excited for a moment before giving the other puzzled looks upon seeing the girl in the doorway.

“Is she-”

“-with you?”

“Nope.”

They spoke simultaneously, filling in each other's sentences and causing Harry to pause and blush.

“Sorry, I didn't see you through the windows and… I'll be on my way.” She nodded and went to close the door when Kole snorted and jumped from her arms, curling up on the seat on the compartment. “Kole! We have to find our own, you can't-” Harry started, getting a growl of dissent from the large black kneazle.

“Oh, don't worry-”

“-about us if you-”

“-want to share the compartment.”

“We're more than happy-”

“-to sit with a pretty girl-”

“-like you.” They once again finished together and grinned at her, offering the seat next to Kole with a wave of their hands.

“I was supposed to send for my cousin if I found a place… Would you mind?” Harry hedged gently, stepping more fully into the compartment. When she got nods from both boys, she stroked a hand over her pet. “Go on, Kole, go find Dudley and bring him back.” She coaxed, getting a rumble and a purr from the kneazle before he set off gracefully down the hall. She closed the door behind him, and turned back to see surprised expressions on the faces of both twins.

They recovered quickly, before turning wide smirks on Harry.

“Well then, who knew-”

“-a cat would ever-”

“-follow orders. Gentle lady-”

“-you have Fred Weasley-”

“-and George Weasley-

“-at your service!”

They bowed to her at the end, and Harry laughed in delight at their amusing form of communication.

“And I am Harriet Potter, known as Harry to my friends.” She curtseyed, grinning at the two and watching shock spring to their faces.

Fred cocked his head and recovered first. “Harry Potter. Harry Potter is a beautiful girl and sitting with us on the Hogwarts express?!”

George covered his face in his hands and groaned. “Merlin help us, we've been hitting on Harry Potter, Gred!”

“I know, Forge!”

“You just called Harry Potter beautiful!”

“How was I supposed to know our Savior was a girl?!”

“You're the smart one, you know these things, didn't you read about her?!”

“Um.” Harry cut in, sitting primly with her legs crossed. “If it helps, no one knows.” She smoothed her dress and smiled at them softly. “Though it is nice to be called beautiful, and I don't mind at all if you continue to do so, I suppose.” She was blushing softly at that point, looking up from under her lashes at the twins, who were both so smitten by her that no one turned their heads when the door opened.

“Harry, your demon cat tried to take my arm off!” Dudley started before seeing the redheads in the seats opposite his cousin. “Oh. Did you decide we're sharing?” The brunette frowned and stayed standing in the doorway even as Kole jumped into Harry's lap and butted his head against the girl's chin.

Harry smiled at Dudley and patted the seat next to her. “The trunks can go above our heads, Dudley. This is Fred and George Weasley. They invited us to share the train ride with them.” She gave Dudley a look that said any impoliteness would be reported to his mother, and Dudley immediately nodded and stowed their trunks before taking his seat.

“Dudley Dursley. I'm Harry's cousin. She says you're Fred and George, yeah?” He offered a hand to the pair, and tensions receded as they shook it.

“You know, I don't-”

“-think I've ever read-”

“-anything about you-”

“-having a cousin, either.”

Harry chuckled as Dudley looked a tad overwhelmed again and shrugged. “There must be a lot of things you've not heard about me, I guess.” Harry hummed and watched Kole roll over, batting at her fingers as he demanded belly-rubs. He had eyes the same shade of green as her own, one of the things that had drawn Harry to him, and was a polydactyl, with six toes on each foot.

Dudley reached out gently to pet the cat, getting closely watched as he did so. Kole didn't always trust him. “So, what house are you two in, then?” He asked as he pulled his hand away before he got bit.

“Oh, we're both in-”

“-Gryffindor, though we-”

“-wouldn't recommend it.”

“Lots of people are-”

“-too obsessed with-”

“-proving themselves-”

“-more than doing well-”

“-in classes.”

“It's more than a bit distracting.” They both rolled their eyes and got a smile from Harry.

“Oh? And does Gryffindor still have the feud with Slytherin? If we were sorted there could we still talk to you?” Harry was looking at them from below her lashes again, and Dudley gave her a surprised look. She had rarely shown any interest in people outside of who she knew already, mostly because they tended to act so strange around her. She had a magnetism that made people wary of her or obsessive, it depended on the person. These two seems to be feeling the magnetism, but weren't succumbing to it like so many others did.

“Why, no one would turn down a friendship with Harry Potter.” Fred grinned at her and George nodded.

“Least of all, us, oh beautiful Savior.” He teased lightly, both brothers preening as this got a giggle out of her.

So much for not falling into her magnetic orbit.

“What house do you think you'll be in? Are you really expecting to be a Slytherin?” Fred had to ask, letting his curiosity win him over.

“Well, Dudley and I have both been raised to be rather ambitious. And my parents were both rather magically powerful, so I think I could do well in Slytherin. I'm not the most studious-just-to-study person, though, and I don't think Dudley could handle Hufflepuff kindness.” Harry teased her cousin and got a shoulder bump for it.

“I can be nice. But that gets you stepped on. If I'm going to become someone in this new world of yours, I need to be respectable and powerful enough to handle it.” He knew he sounded like Vernon when he said things like that, but he knew it was true, and he got appreciative looks from the twins.

“He does sound like a Slytherin with that point of view, but I don't know how someone like yourself will end up in the Snake’s den, Harry.” George put in. Harry to gave him a sickly-sweet smile and fluttered her lashes.

“Well, I've already killed one Dark Lord, what's to stop me from becoming the next.” She purred, leaning closer to the twins and watching their eyes go hazy and their breathing slow. She was well aware of the effect she had on people.

Dudley sighed and rolled his eyes at them, his adoptive sister being nothing but that to him. He would follow her into any battle she lead him to, but he wasn't as mindless a follower as she could convince people to be. He was more loyal to her, in some ways.

As she sat back with a smirk and stroked one of Kole’s large ears, the kneazle purred, breaking the silence and shocking the twins out of their trance. They immediately bent their heads together and started whispering, throwing anxious glances at Harry.

“Alright then.” Fred started as they sat back.

“You have our assistance is whatever your plans may be.” George continued, and Harry looked at them with something like suspicion, getting a chuckle from both.

“No one would be crazy enough to challenge that, Harry.”

“Might as well get in on this early so we can trust we won't get in your way.”

They shrugged and Harry was rather pleased with that, though she currently has no plans to actually take over the wizarding world. Some changes were surely important, but… it seemed she would at least have help with that much.

Dudley thought about the store they'd stumbled upon in a dark off-shoot of Diagon, of the book that Harry had stored in his trunk about the Dark Arts, and wondered for a moment how far into this Harry would end up getting before she realized that she could do anything she wanted to. He chuckled to himself and decided that when there were more people aware of her he'd have to start a betting pool.

The rest of the train ride went without incident, unless you counted Harry getting overly excited when the trolley came and buying the whole lot. And then they were there and Dudley and Harry were in a boat with an Irish boy named Finnegan or something and someone named Dean or Thomas, but neither could remember because they were suddenly seeing Hogwarts for the first time. And it looked like home.

“Blimey!” Some ginger boy exclaimed from another boat, and Dudley himself cursed quietly upon seeing the castle for the first time.

“Harry… is this real? Am I dreaming?” He whispered, reaching to hold onto his cousin's hand, and Harry shook her head.

“ No, Dudley… I don't think either of us could dream up something like this.” She whispered back as they went into a tunnel under the castle and were lead by that giant of a man (Hagrid, Harry thought he said) up the stairs into the castle’s entrance hall.

A stately woman greeted them at the top of the stairs and introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall. She was apparently going to lead them in for the sorting, but they had a few minutes to spare before then and Harry found herself straightening her robes and skirt and then redoing her hair. It was when she pulled her hair back into a ponytail that a blonde boy who had been checking her out noticed the scar on her forehead.

“Harry Potter?” She heard and glanced around, noticing the question had come from a small blonde boy with a pointed face to the left of her.

“That's my name, don't wear it out.” She had noticed many muggle sayings went right over the heads of those in the wizard community, and this one seemed to be just as new to the people around her as she had expected it to be.

“Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.” The blonde introduced himself when his brain caught up with him. “And this is Crabbe and Goyle.” He gestured to the boys on either side of him as he said this, and both reeked of “body-guard” so Harry just ignored them and looked over the blonde, with his high quality robes and smug facial expression.

“Pleasure.” Harry drawled, easily mimicking Draco’s tone as she offered a hand to be shaken and caught his eyes in hers.

“Of…. Course.” Draco got that same far-away look in his eyes the twins had earlier and Dudley could see him falling into the orbit around Harry.

“This way, first years.” McGonagall showed up just in time to keep anyone else from realizing that anything strange had happened, as Harry dropped Draco’s hand and the Malfoy came back to himself.

As they filed into the Great Hall, Harry spotted Fred and George, waving to them, and then the sorting started with Hannah Abbott and things continued as they should. Dudley was one of the first sorted.

“SLYTHERIN!” The hat called after no more than half a minute on his head. The table looked rather confused to have someone who was obviously a muggleborn in their house, but they clapped anyway, and the sorting went on like normal.

Harry knew where she wanted to be sorted, now, and was fairly sure she would be following Dudley into Slytherin even if she didn't want to, so she kept a blank face when Malfoy was sorted into Slytherin as well, not surprised by that in the least, and then shortly thereafter it was Harry’s turn.

“Potter, Harry.” McGonagall called out, silence falling immediately around the hall. All eyes turned to her when she stepped up, and whispers broke out. The deputy headmistress pursed her lips for a moment, narrowing her eyes, and then spoke again. “Excuse me, miss Potter. Harriet, isn't it?” She corrected herself in front of the whole school, causing more whispers to spread as Harry nodded.

“Thank you, ma'am. I do prefer to be called Harry, though, so it's quite alright.” She responded as she stepped up and sat on the stool provided. She felt her whole body relax as the hat was placed over her head, and realised the reason for the seat then.

“SLYTHERIN!” The hat shouted after a moment of what felt like a shuffling inside her head.

“Good luck.” She thought she heard for a moment before the hat was removed, but she blinked and the voice was gone, cheers going up all around the hall rather than just one table, and then she was getting a hug from Dudley and pats on the back from the surrounding Slytherins, who had apparently warmed up to her cousin when they found out who he was.

The sorting continued. It wasn't long before it was over, then Dumbledore was speaking some gibberish, but Harry didn't even pay attention to any of it until the food appeared on the table, because she had caught the eye of a professor.

A professor with shoulder-length black hair, wearing robes just as black, and having eyes to match it all. The shuffling in her brain was back, as she stared into his soul, but she could feel a link to the man and allowed him access to her thoughts and memories, opening her mind to him. She noted a flicker of surprise on his face as she did this, and then the presence tentatively withdrew, almost apologetically. She tilted her head a bit, following the presence to the edge of his mind, keeping eye contact and watching his eyes go hazy like so many others she had in her thrall.

Boring.

But he wasn't. He was something interesting, his mind not available to her with just a nudge of suggestion like all the others. The twins had also had a similar structure to their minds that didn't allow her access, though they had granted it. She wondered what it was called. The answer was pushed her way. Occlumency. Harry had something new to study, it seemed. The professor blinked and was gone, leaving her feeling slightly empty.

Then the table was full of food, and she grinned at Dudley and started to eat, conversing with her new house-mates between bites. It was a very promising start for Harry Potter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck, okay. So, I hadn't written anything for this in like... Well, since a week after the first chapter went up. But I started playing a game with myself, to get me to write while I was feeling depressed and anxious, and I started writing on this again when I told myself I'd write for whatever fic had the most kudos in the email I recieve almost daily from AO3. It was a slow day. This had the most kudos. I dusted it off, and actually got back into it again!  
> I'm not promising, like... A lot of writing for this. Because I'm bad at motivation. But we'll see, and comments make me more likely to write more, too. ^^  
> Hope you all enjoy it!

Harry was put in a room with two other girls, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass.

“I never knew the famous Harry Potter was a girl!” Was a phrase she heard all day on her first day of classes.

And by day two, Harry had Dudley next to her nearly constantly, as he seemed to deter most if the school from approaching.

“Oh, come on, Harry, it can't be that bad!”

“At least they all know who you are.”

“And no one would dare try anything dumb with your bodyguard, here!”

“Yeah, I'm surprised you haven't borrowed Crabb and Goyle from the ferret!”

Two weeks in, Fred and George were just about the only reprieve Harry had, and never stopped bringing a smile to her face.

“Oh, Malfoy isn't too bad. I know you have bad blood between you, but I'm sure you can put it aside and play nice for the cause.” She teased, fluttering her lashes and getting fond looks of annoyance from her twins.

“We'll play nice if he will, love-”

“-but we all know that won't happen.” She finished the sentence with George, watching the twins look at each other in alarm and then look back to her. This was certainly an anomaly in their experience.

“Oh, come off it, you two. You know I'm more than capable of scanning your surface thoughts while your walls are intact. A very interesting process when they run so parallel but in such different ways, by the way.” She smirked at them both and patted them each on the head when they continued to look rather disturbed by the occurrence.

“Harry, I think you broke them.” Dudley sighed from the chair next their couch, having been mostly forgotten and being mostly okay with that. “And your cat wants attention. He's about to pounce on that little blonde girl.” He pointed out, making Harry turn quickly to see Kole sneaking up on Daphne across the common room.

Harry hissed sharply and the kneazle’s ears went back, the feline freezing in place. “Kole. What did I tell you about being an ass?” Harry huffed, watching the black cat sit slowly back and turn to look at Harry with an annoyed rumble that she took to mean “Not to.”

“That's right. Not behaving will get you shipped home. And you like it here, I know you do, or you wouldn't have claimed my bed before I even got to my rooms that first night. Don't be an ass.” Harry reminded, watching the kneazle skulk off in the direction of her rooms.

Chuckles brought her back to the situation at hand, though a blonde boy falling gracefully onto the couch next to her had about the same effect.

“Are you aware of the rules of bringing visitors into our common room, Potter?” Malfoy smirked at her, getting an eye roll and a swat to the face that did nothing but annoy him.

“I signed them in, you git. It isn't like they're here to do any harm. “ Harry huffed good naturedly. “You're just jealous I was actually able to get approved to bring my lovers here and you weren't.” She teased back, leaning away from him on the couch and across the laps of the two “lovers” in question, both of whom were barely containing their laughter at this point. Harry had gotten them approved by signing them in as her boyfriends.

“Those ginger menaces, your boyfriends? As if they could properly court an heir to a house like Potter.” Draco was the one rolling his eyes now, but he did allow it when Harry brought her feet up to settle in his lap, laying all the way across the couch.

Harry giggled to herself and smirked at Draco. “Oh, who said anything about proper courting, Draco dear?” She grinned and the pulled first Fred and then George down into kisses that left everyone involved stunned.

That had not been part of the plan. Well, it apparently was now.

Draco actually went slack-jawed as he watched, but it was Dudley that snapped everyone to attention with a loud throat clearing. “Harry. You know I can snap both of them in half. Don't give me reason to.” Dudley rumbled, going back to his Defense homework when she threw him a mock salute and stretched back across their laps with a large, annoying of space between their faces.

“You-”

“Yes, I know, I was just rattling your cage, Drake. Now hush.” Harry huffed, using the same tone on him that she had on Kole. She grinned up at the twins, then. “You heard Dudley. No funny business. Just world domination.” She giggled and reached over to nudge her cousin.

“I think we can all agree world domination is within your grasp, love.” George mumbled, looking over to Draco in just as much shock as the blonde. Harry was unpredictable at the best of times, but at her worst she was a menace to the health of any person who cared for her. This number seemed to be growing daily, and even included most of the teachers at this point.

The only teacher she had yet to win over was Professor Snape. And that was attributed mostly to his already sour disposition. Even stuttering Professor Quirrell seemed more sure of himself with her in his class, and he had already found her in the back of the library one day and spoken with her about defensive and offensive arts, though she hadn't told anyone such, for no other reason than because he confused her and she wanted to puzzle him out.

Even Quirrell wasn't as confusing as Snape, though. Within the first class with their potions professor, Harry wanted to hate him. She couldn't bring herself to, because every time she looked at him it made her feel like she was missing something important, but the way he'd sneered the word celebrity at her, the way he'd questioned her specifically at the beginning of class, made her want to. The look of considering and the held gaze when she answered his questions correctly was enough to change her mind, though. She had written to her aunt to vent her frustrations instead, and got a very puzzling reply.

Two weeks of school, three letters from home, (two of whom speaking about a little boy named Severus Snape) and one weekend spent in the common room later, Harry was curious enough to confront him during his Sunday evening office hours.

“Miss Potter. I assume you have a reason for this... visit.” Snape drawled as he allowed her into his office.

Harry had her hair pulled back and was wearing her favorite emerald sundress after trying to soak up the last of the summer warmth with her friends by the lake, and she smoothed it out gently as she sat in the provided visitor's chair. “Of course, professor. I wouldn't want to take up too much of your time, but I… I was wondering if you would maybe tell me about my mother?” She whispered the last part, leaning in a bit. She had caught his eye before saying this and now watched the black eyes widen and fill with pain, but they never left hers, and she knew it was for the same reason her aunt loved her eyes. They were Lily's.

“I wrote to my aunt about school and when I mentioned you she recognized the name. She said you were Lily's best friend. I don't… I don't remember my parents at all, and Aunt Tunia can't tell me much after Hogwarts began, and I-”

“Out.” He dropped his gaze as he interrupted her. “Get out. I can tell you nothing. Ask Flitwick if you wish to know about her, she studied under him for a charms mastery. But go.” He didn't sneer now, didn't drawl. His voice was low and laced with anger and sadness. She could do nothing but obey, not saying another word as she left.

~*~

It was a month into school when she and her group of inter-house followers were noticed. She was nearly constantly surrounded by people. Even going to the restroom was a group project, so she eventually insisted there was one place she could be alone. In the library.

Okay, yes, this was partially due to the fact that she had continued to run into Quirrell rather regularly in the library, but the young professor was rather too interesting for her to bother with making excuses to herself. It was the first cool Saturday of the year that she found herself tucked into a chair in the corner of the library with her Dark Arts book in a bright book cover she'd asked her aunt to send. This kept most gazes away, and everyone knew not to approach her in the library, so she was pleased to feel a familiar presence nearby as she glanced up to see her professor.

“Hello, Professor. How was that detention?” she questioned, closing her book.

“R-rather dull.” He stuttered, though she knew that by the end of their talk he'd have forgotten it entirely.

She made some idle chit chat for a moment, easing him into conversation, but was a tad startled by his first question.

“You know you are treading on dangerous grounds, Miss Potter? The Dark Lord started out with a group much like your own, brought together by loyalty to one they deemed reliable and worthy of following. It wasn't until later that his followers were recruited by fear or persuasion.” He spoke softly, though the privacy wards inconspicuously set up would protect them.

Harry thought for a moment on how to answer. “I read once about a Light Lord who went mad with power. He could get away with most anything, sent innocent men to jail for not following his teachings, outlawing magics he deemed wicked, though many of them were simply very powerful and misunderstood. He even betrayed his best friend for what he claimed was the… greater good-”

“Grindelwald was in no way light, Miss Potter.”

“Did I say Grindelwald? Who else uses that phrase, Professor? Dumbledore is the Lord of whom I speak. How are we to know that the war between him and Voldemort didn't simply get out of hand? Did you fight the Dark Lord?” She knew she had surprised him with her observations, and watched him calculating her.

“No I did not, Miss Potter. And I believe you know why already.” He gently pulled the book from her hands, opening it to a page she had read a week ago about the tricky nature of souls and some theories on soul magics, splitting and binding them. “My question is… who have you told and do I need to silence you?”

Harry laughed in delight as fear of another person soaked through her for the first time. It was exhilarating. “Oh, dear, Quirinus. How stupid do you think 11 year olds are? I'm not yet soaked in hormones and bad decisions like the teenaged toddlers running about.” She teased in the face of disaster, making eye contact with the man and pushing the truth to him.

She had told Dudley, who told her not to tell anyone else because he didn't want to be responsible for letting her get herself killed, then went back to the letter he was writing.

“I haven't even mentioned you to the twins.” She shrugged, though thinking of the twins did bring a slight flush to her face and cause her to think about the multiple kisses they had now shared, accidentally leaking that to her professor, who raised one brow and snorted.

“No hormones, hm?”

“Well, maybe a slight bit.” She shrugged and broke the connection, not yet experienced enough to not leak things like that.

“I see that. It does seem you won't be a problem, though, unless you do plan to challenge the Dark Lord for his throne, so I think I'll leave you for today, Miss Potter.” He returned the book to her as he stood, and she nodded.

“I'll see you in class, professor.” She replied quietly, noting, as she often did, that her scar ached slightly when he turned his back to her. It had become a normal occurrence, and she ignored it as she stood and headed out to find the twins. She needed to be normal for a while.

~*~

Dudley had never even dreamed that things like this could be possible. He suddenly needed to know everything as quickly as possible, and he used his network of people that Harry was gathering to do so.

In an attempt to win the favor of the famous and aloof Potter, many people went through Dudley. He had at first told Harry about the things they said and did, but she would rather not listen to those who thought manipulation would get them into her good grace.

She'd told Dudley to have a bit of fun with it. See what they wanted and find out how far they'd go. This was how Dudley obtained books on magical bonds, creatures of all sorts, and wizarding customs and etiquette. The books went on a shelf in the room Dudley shared with Draco and Blaise Zabini, another of the few people Harry appreciated. It was quite a lot to take in, but Harry was a sponge and Dudley wanted to learn everything he could to make himself something. Something more than Harry's cousin or his father's son.

It was only two months into their first year when Dudley came across a book on courtship and pureblood marriages. Harry was technically a first generation pure-blood, according to a number of texts, and as such she needed to be married into a respectable family, and that would get harder as she got older and more people entered courtships that would work out. He broached the subject to Draco and Blaise before bringing it up to her.

“Draco, do you have any more books on courtships and contracts? I need to have notes to take home for my parents, and some of this doesn't make any sense…” He sighed, running a hand over the cover of the book he'd been reading. It was from no later than the 1500’s, and the language was much too archaic. Damn that Smith. He was getting nowhere.

Draco hummed and looked up from his own book, eyes brightening as he realized the implications. “Looking for a suitable courtship for Harry? I could help you more with that than any book, you know. I'm betrothed to Astoria Greengrass, after all.” He pointed out, smoothing an imaginary wrinkle from his robes.

Dudley frowned. “If you're betrothed, why are you always getting so annoyed when Harry flirts with her twins?” He raised an eyebrow at Draco, as the blonde flushed red.

“Well, I'm… obviously annoyed for Blaise’s sake! He doesn't have a betrothal yet, after all, and a Potter like Harry would make a lovely wife for-”

Blaise interrupted. “I'm gay, Drake.”

The sudden silence in the room was broken when Dudley sighed and pulled a sheet of parchment from inside the book’s front cover, taking a quill and marking through something written on it. Blaise raised an eyebrow, but Draco actually got up and leaned over Dudley’s shoulder to see what he was doing. On the parchment was a list of names, and two had been struck out, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. Dudley noted next to them that Draco was betrothed and Blaise gay, and Draco pouted as he read over the rest of the names. Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Cedric Diggory, Theodore Nott, Neville Longbottom, and Ernie Macmillan were the only other names listed, and Draco noticed the list seemed to consist only of other purebloods, though he wasn't sure how many of them were available for a courtship.

“Neville Longbottom? He's practically a squib, Dursley!” Was the only comment Draco made, sneering at the very thought.

Dudley smirked, though, and shrugged. “Harry insisted on that one. She says he actually has rather impressive magic, because he's using a wand that isn't his. She also thinks he'll grow up to look like his father, so she at least wants him on the list. His lack of personal strength is why she put him so low on the list, though.”

Draco’s eyes widened, and he looked down at the list again. This was a list Harry put together? They were ordered by preference? His name was the one on the top, and Blaise’s was just below the twins, making Draco groan and drop his head into his hands. “I was at the top of her list.” He mumbled, voice muffled, and Dudley chuckled.

“This isn't the entire list. She said she had a few other people she was thinking about, but she wouldn't tell me who they were. Just that they would go… here and here.” He explained, marking first just under Cedric’s name and then above Draco’s. Blaise was getting curious, and he leaned in to see as well, snorting as the line was marked at the top.

“There goes your fragile ego.” He sighed, giving his best friend a knowing look as the blonde just whined and dropped back onto his own bed.

“Who could she possibly pick over me!” Draco huffed, and a giggle from the doorway had them all bolting to their feet to turn and see none other than Harry Potter standing by the frame.

“Well, how could anyone not put the Dark Lord at the top of their list? I'm at least very curious about him, you know.” She mused, smirking as the boys all gave her frightened and, in Dudley’s case, reproachful looks.

Damn those reckless Potter genes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I left a cliffhanger haha  
> Comments? Critique? Please and thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm only able to post so quickly because I've actually had a large part of this written since Chapter 1 went up, so I just had to do some severe editing and fix it to my liking :3 I hope you enjoy this new chapter!  
> Also, I have no beta, so... Um, I hope there aren't too many mistakes! ^^'

“Harry. You can't really think-” Dudley began, but Draco bulldozed over him.

“The Dark Lord? That's insane, Harry! People say he isn't even human, and-” A sharp throat-clearing cut Draco off, as Blaise scowled him into silence. “I-I mean… Harry, the Dark Lord tried to kill you. Why would you- trust that he won't again?”

Dudley marked down a note to ask Draco more about Voldemort later, and Harry watched him, giggling. She ignored Draco’s question. “Dudley, I need to know more about the Dark Lord’s rise to power. It's come to my attention he had his own little group during school, which became his inner circle. I want to know who they were, and where they are now. And I need information on how other people perceived them from the outside. I can't let anyone get too suspicious of us when I really start to gather those I can trust.” She smirked, looked over the list of names, scratched one out and added three, then winked at Blaise and bounced away before anyone could comment on it.

She didn't need a list of people to court anymore. She needed a list of those she thought were trustworthy. And she had it. Now, all she needed to do was draw them in. That would be easy enough, so her next step was to deal with the issue of her… Fan Mail.

With so much fame came an amount of responsibility to live up to the expectations, and Harry played the Golden Girl flawlessly. She was adored by all, batting her lashes and opening doors. This also came with a lot of Fan Mail. By the second week of school, her twins had demanded to be in charge of her fan mail, after she got a series of dangerously disturbing letters that were tracked by aurors back to a muggleborn man with a wall covered in newspaper clippings and photos of her. She didn't know how he had gotten them, no one did, but he was questioned under veritaserum and found to be under a vow of silence. All anyone could find out was that he worked with some twisted sect of muggleborns so anti-Dark that it was disturbing.

It was an annoyance, and something she didn't want to have to deal with. What she needed was a bit more exposure on the issue, for people to see her and have their curiosity satisfied. And that could work in her favor in several ways.

So, she contacted Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet. Press was always a good way of getting people on their side. Dudley wasn't overly happy with the development, but he was a little infatuated with the reporter, so he agreed to it. The official reasoning being to bring everyone into the light on her life so far, because she got more letters referring to her as a boy and talking about the secret facility where she'd surely been hidden than she had gotten actual fan mail. It was the first Saturday in November when Rita and her camera paid Hogwarts a visit.

“Harry, Dumbledore sent me for you. Rita Skeeter is here in the castle. She's asking for you, waving around some letter.” Harry nodded to Daphne and smiled at the nervous girl. Rita was not known for keeping her mouth shut about who she thought was Dark and in cahoots with Voldemort, and she'd run a smear campaign on many families, including the Greengrasses, for the tenth anniversary of the war.

“Thanks, Daph. Don't worry, I knew she was coming.” Harry stroked the girl's hair, getting the dazzling girl to smile, and then headed out of her hiding spot in the library. She had to get Dudley from the common room, but then headed up to Dumbledore’s office, giving the password she'd learned the day before. Acid pops must still be his favorite candy.

“I was invited, Albus! The girl sent me a letter!” Rita was heard to be saying from halfway up the stairs. Dudley fidgeted with his sweater as they heard her, and Harry merely smoothed her soft blue sundress. The woman was indeed something else, speaking to Albus Dumbledore like that. They didn't hear his reply before knocking on the door, but it opened to show their headmaster and the flashy-as-ever Skeeter.

“Harry! See, Albus, I told you she sent me a letter! Don't you just look darling, and this is your cousin? How peculiar, two muggleborns from different generations of one family! I wonder if your grandparents were squibs. Well. Maybe one of them.” Her cameraman snapped a photo of them as soon as Dumbledore had guided them to the chairs in front of his desk.

“Harry. Did you invite her to write an article about you? You can still refuse an interview, my dear.” Dumbledore reminded softly, and Harry just gave him a reassuring smile.

“Oh, I know, headmaster. Thank you. But I want to let people know about me. And Rita writes the most thrilling articles. Dudley adores her, so I just had to ask for it to be her.” She stage whispered the last bit, getting a chuckle from Dumbledore and a glare from Dudley as Rita overheard and giggled, her quill writing it all down already.

Dumbledore was missing the trademark twinkle in his eye as he gave her one last nod. “If you are sure then, Harry. Would you like me to stay?” He offered hopefully, and Harry shook her head.

“No, thank you, sir. I'll be fine.” She gave him her most charming smile and watched him leave before turning the smile on Rita Skeeter. “Did you draw up a list of questions, Miss Skeeter?” She asked as soon as he was gone, and the woman grinned rather like a shark.

“Of course, Harry darling.” She took a seat in another chair, approximately across from them. “Now, you said your cousin’s name is Dudley Dursley, yes? And you were raised by his family?” She clarified, leaning in a bit across the distance.

“Oh, yes, Dudley and I were raised by my mother's sister and her husband. Petunia and Vernon are Dudley's parents. They've taken me in and raised me as their own, though we didn't know that Dudley was magical until he got his letter. My accidental magic was more flashy than his.” She blushed a bit as she thought of the time she'd not wanted to wear a shirt outside because it was hot and Dudley didn't have one on, and she'd vanished hers. It had never been seen again.

Skeeter certainly noticed the blushing, another picture snapping behind her. “Oh, how quaint. But did you know who you were when you were growing up? You weren't seen in the magical world at all until you went shopping for school, so many people had only seen you as a baby and thought you were a boy until then, you know.” She went fishing. Harry bit.

“Well, there was a letter with me when my aunt found me on the doorstep-”

“They left you on the doorstep?!”

“Well, yes… I don't know who it was. But there was a note saying that… that James and Lily had… and that I lived…” Harry hadn't talked about this but recently, and it brought tears to her as it always did. She could have had parents and grown up just fine if it hadn't been for the war. She would be a boy, yes, but… She had a feeling it wouldn't have been a problem if she grew up like she was supposed to. “I sometimes think about them. Aunt Petunia had some pictures Lily sent her. They looked so… happy before the war. I can't say that they were murdered. They were participants in a war. They died heros. But… I do wish I had had them growing up.”

Harry was laying it on thick as she whimpered, tears overflowing now. Dudley sighed and rubbed her back, handing her a neat handkerchief from his pocket. He had never seen her like this, and inside he panicked, but he couldn't do that outwardly. He looked at Rita, knowing he needed to speak up now.

“She keeps getting letters. Some of them are fan mail, but some of them… say it was her who killed her parents. It upsets her, obviously. Accusations or accounts of how her parents had fought during this battle or that one. I read them too, because she gets so upset, but she still feels like she should read them if people bother to write to her. People expect her to be a hero, so she tries. But so many are also a slap to the face over her gender. It's been bad.” He was still rubbing circles into Harry's back, and she had calmed down enough to sniffle out a thank you.

“Oh, that is simply awful.” Rita looked like she had just struck gold. Of course, that had been the plan.

“I-I just want to-” Harry sniffled delicately and wiped at her eyes, “-learn about this world and the things in it. There's so much I don't know. I don't even know why Dark magic is illegal.” She blinked large, wet, doe eyes at Rita. “I just hope that this will give people what they want. I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I'm just… Harry. Harry Potter, the girl who lived to be 11 years old and has friends across all the houses. I'm just me.” She whispered the last bit, and Rita reached across to pat her shoulder.

“Of course you are, dear. Of course. I don't want to upset you anymore today, so I think I'll write my article with what you've given me so far, okay, dear?” She gave another shark-like grin and patted the girl’s shoulder, standing. Harry just nodded and Dudley told Rita goodbye as she left. It had gone a little better than they had planned, it seemed. Now, as long as Rita wrote like she usually did, picking out small details and inflating those to encourage her popularity, it was sure to be a successful article.

Dumbledore was quick to step back in and offer the sniffly child lemondrops. They both declined them and soon were going back down to the dungeons to meet up with Draco and the Weasley twins.

~*~

Having Harry Potter around really was wonderful for inter house relations. People were quick to love her, and by the time Christmas Holidays came, she had a tree of connections across all the houses. Cedric Diggory, a fourth year Hufflepuff, was the oldest of what his friends jokingly called his “inner circle”. He was kind and loyal and everything a Hufflepuff should be. He was also a great duelist, current champion of the fourth years in the tournament that was secretly held in the Room of Requirement. Harry had been sad to hear one had to be a third year or above to participate, but she was overly proud when Fred was the third year champion.

Other than Cedric and the twins, her most trusted friends included Draco, Blaise, Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom.

They were people she could trust not to betray her or her other friends.

Cedric had been found in the library, getting a book off a shelf too high for her before teaching her the Accio charm. He had been welcomed openly after the Weasleys approved of him.

Hermione was a bit stranger. She had been in the library as well, and had been going for a book at the same time as Harry, the two catching each other in a staring contest when they both had it, before Hermione suggested they share it, since they were working on the same essay. No one else had seemed as interested in the essay as Harry, so she had been glad to have someone to talk to about all the interesting things they were learning. Finding out Hermione was a Muggleborn hadn't been a surprise after that.

Then Neville came into the picture. He had a faulty wand. Well, not exactly faulty. But it rebelled against his magic. It wasn't meant for him, as she'd explained to Dudley, and Harry had seen this happening on multiple occasions in class. She found out from Hermione that the Gryffindor was using his father's wand, because his Gran insisted on it. It made Neville absolutely dreadful at practical magic, though, and the nervous boy was rubbish at everything but the Herbology he had taken to studying in the library.

His plants grew like weeds and his wand work just seemed to get worse as time went on.

Harry decided he needed help then, but in a more Slytherin fashion. Replacement had to be necessary or his Grandmother, a notoriously angry and stubborn witch, would never go for it. This lead to Harry commandeering Crabb and Goyle to do what they found to be so fun and tease Neville into a tizzy, before getting slightly physical and-

Neville's wand was broken.

Of course, being the girl-who-lived had perks, but being a Potter had, arguably, even more. When she publicly apologized to Neville Longbottom for her housemates’ behavior and offered to pay for the wand replacement, she got a letter from his Grandmother the very next day thanking her for her kindness and generosity but denying her offer out of propriety.

That day, Neville was gone for dinner and came back with a new wand the next morning.

Harry didn't tell Neville it was her fault the wand was broken, but no one ever spoke of the more shady things Harry did, so she befriended the pureblood without issue, seeing a lot of potential in anyone who could work so diligently with a wand that was always rebelling against him.

All of this happened before the end of the first term of school, and the seventh and sixth years started to notice the little Potter after so many connections were being made under their noses. Harry liked to think of her network like Yggdrasil. The tree of the world. Her world.

And her world was growing and changing by the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments convince me that I'm not just talking to myself here... Which is kinda important to me, if I want to actually write and not just stare at the screen... I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo, wrote this chapter up yesterday! Still don't have a beta, so expect some mistakes! And enjoy! Things are moving FORWARD!

Nothing could ruin Christmas.

There wasn't a power in the universe that could stop Harry from bouncing around the castle in leggings and stockings and skirts that were not dress-code-standard when she was on a sugar high from all the chocolates she received. She bounced between the house tables, visiting with Cho Chang and flirting with Oliver Wood and watching Draco Malfoy play exploding snap with Ernie Macmillan. They all may have been deemed too light-washed for her inner group, but they were still pure bloods, each of them a good connection for her to have for later. She had impressed Oliver with her superior flying, and had asked Cho for advice on a particularly tricky charm she was learning outside of class. Ernie looked up to Cedric, so he was easy to sway. Each of them were played so easily, especially when she caught their eyes and held them in the soft part of her mind she used to seduce the will of anyone and everyone into bending.

And that did mean anyone. Even Snape and Quirrell had been caught by her at times, when she was feeling particularly daring.

If only she could try it on the Dark Lord himself.

The holiday didn't grant her that opportunity, but she did have enough free time on her hands drag Kole out of the warmth of her bed and carry the Kneazle all around the castle with her, deciding he needed to see more of it. He was so lazy, he hardly ever ventured out since it started snowing, and she found endless amusement in decidedly not watching people as they watched her.

Dudley said she was like a disney princess. Probably Snow White. It worked out in her favor, anyway.

At least, until the face of a man she thought she knew from a dream was suddenly plastered all across the newspapers. The headline: Mass Murderer Sirius Black Escaped From Azkaban.

The paper came out on Christmas day. The sudden whispers and hushed words like Potter and traitor and murderer that floated around after Harry all that day did, in fact, seem to be the one thing in the universe that could ruin her holiday. Sirius Black. Draco said he was assumed to be the man that betrayed her parents to the Dark Lord.

Harry read between his words, though. Assumed to be. Lucius Malfoy was in the Dark Lord’s inner circle. Narcissa Malfoy was once a Black. Somehow, neither of Draco’s parents were convinced Sirius was the traitor.

But, if there was one thing Harry Potter wouldn't ever stand for, it was someone who claimed to be a friend and then betrayed you to your enemies. Suddenly, she had a new goal.

~*~

Fred and George Weasley sat with their heads bent together over the paper. Fred looked at George and saw the mirror image of his own expression. Christmas Day. Yule. Harry would have been celebrating Yule in the Slytherin common room that night, but they both knew her well enough to know this news would send her quickly into her own world. She would be sitting on her bed or in a chair by the fire, staring at nothing with a wrinkle over her nose and a ‘v’ between her eyebrows. Dudley said she had picked up that face from Petunia.

The twins each hummed a different note, and scratched opposite cheeks. Fred was ambidextrous, so they often used opposite hands when they weren't trying to mess with people. They were relatively sure Harry was the only person to ever notice. That and to notice that George did more reading for amusement than Fred did, who preferred more active pastimes. Yes, Harry noticed these things, even when their own family didn't. It was part of the reason they were so devoted to her after only a few months together.

Nothing escaped her notice. Just like it surely wouldn't escape her notice that it had been a solid ten years of Azkaban for Black before he escaped. Only one thing had changed. Only one thing could have been the catalyst. Harry Potter had been in the paper for the first time in ten years. Not only that, but Sirius Black had known Harry as a baby. He would know her secret.

The twins were pretty sure only they and Dudley knew her secret. And she was oblivious to the fact that they did. They were hardly dumb enough to not know that they were in love with a boy, however. Well, a girl in a boy’s body. But Sirius Black…

He knew. And he had no reason not to give it away. This was troubling.

With a sigh, George closed the paper and dropped it onto his bed, taking Fred’s hand instead.

“Well…”

“Yeah. Time to get back.”

~*~

Draco Malfoy wasn't a complete idiot. He knew when something was wrong. He had a feeling this something wouldn't be so easily fixed by his father, however. Girls were mysterious creatures, even his own mother, and he really didn't know how to deal with the way Harry had been acting since the article about Sirius Black came out.

On the one hand, she wasn't prancing around in skirts that made Draco stare at her for much too long or dancing through the Great Hall with her cat in her arms. On the other hand… well, she wasn't prancing or dancing around anymore! It was confusing. He was worried about her, but he was also relieved she wasn't being so… Cute. For someone who was legitimately planning the take over Great Britain (and probably the world) Harry was usually way too Cute.

It made everyone stare at her. And love her. Which made Draco… well, Jealous. Capitally.

To add to all the confusion, the twins had returned from their home early, scooping Harry up and dashing off with her to their common room. Who knew what kind of indecent things they were doing? Dudley was not nearly worried enough. The jerk gave Draco a smirk and taunted him with his eyes when Draco brought it up.

But Harry had been up there for two days now.

It wasn't decent. He had seen the twins come down halfway through a meal, fill two plates, and take off with them. At every meal they had. Seven meals now. They were obviously holding Harry captive.

Dudley just gave him an even more ridiculous look when Draco suggested this. Then he (FINALLY) opened his mouth to respond. What came out was not in any way reassuring, however.

“Look. They know I'll eviscerate them both if they touch her without her express consent. As long as she comes back happy and finally opens her damn presents, I don't care if they keep her in that tower all week.”

A week. Draco couldn't believe his ears. Blaise laughed at him when he complained to him about it via owl. Draco knew he did, just from the way he wrote back about absolutely nothing to do with Harry. It was ridiculous.

Fortunately, Harry came down for dinner on the third day. Draco gave the twins a poisonous glare (pouted at them cutely for five minutes) and monopolized all of Harry’s conversation during that dinner. The twins just smirked at him from the seats on either side of her, and Draco ignored them completely (when he wasn't pouting at them). Harry was back to smiling and batting too-long eyelashes and being Cute again. It made Draco’s stomach flutter when she flashed her smile at him.

“Harry.” Dudley sighed, looking relieved as he dropped onto the bench next to Draco.

Harry beamed. “Dudley.” No further words seemed to be needed. It was simply unnatural.

Draco scoffed and went back to his food. He didn't know why he had even worried.

~*~

Harry relaxed back on her own bed for the first time in three days, and sighed. She felt so much better now that she had a solid plan. Spending three days going over what was happening and what they should do about it with the twins had been cathartic.

Of course, she had relayed the plan to Dudley and Draco while she put away all the gifts she'd received for Christmas, sorting out the candy and starting on the chocolates before she was even halfway through her explanation. Both boys had watched her put away two boxes of chocolates without even batting an eye, and she had the feeling it was mostly because they were so used to her affinity for sweets. She had even shared one of the finer chocolate bars she'd received (dutch chocolate, a gift from Pansy) with Dudley, knowing he would like it at least as much as she did.

Harry mulled the plan over again as she lay in bed. Sirius Black had been an Auror. He was the best friend of James from day one in school. He was Lily’s bridesmaid at their wedding. In a dress. Harry found the notion of him betraying them to be as outlandish as it was cutting. So, she had asked Draco to have his father look into his trial. She'd made it very clear that she could just as easily get the same from Cedric, when he started to puff up, and he'd agreed to “ask about the damn trial” very quickly after that.

People were so easy to manipulate. She wanted something fun. A challenge. Sirius Black, could be the first person to actually pose such a thing. If he had betrayed her parents, he would die by her hand. If he hadn't, she would be finding out why the hell her godfather went to Azkaban wrongly. It should be fun. She hoped.

There was one thing she hadn't counted on, however. Dementors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Comments? Complaints? Random internet trivia? I accept all!


End file.
